Forgive my 101 stupid questions, this broody stuff is all new to me ... Gave my hen 7 eggs on Tuesday. The eggs were 3 days old when I put them under her.. Now do I need to do anything.. Ive been checking on her and I can tell she ate a small amout this morning. Can I candle the eggs or is it just best to leave her be until day 21???
Reason I ask... The girl I got the eggs from stated 3 of the 7 (the RIR eggs) she could not 100% gaurantee they were fertile, though her hen was with the roo.. I just worry about them not being and may go rotten..
I have let a couple of broody hens hatch eggs. They usually do pretty well on their own at taking care of them. I did sneak the eggs out a couple of times to candle them. Some people think that you shouldn't bother the hens but it didn't cause a problem with my hens. My hens would leave their nests to go to the bathroom and stretch a little sometimes. They really didn't seem to eat much. I have hatched a lot of eggs in the incubator too and so far even the ones that were not fertile have not caused a problem when it comes to being rotten and contaminating anything. I would wait 7 to 10 days before I would candle. Good luck with your hatching! I got some really cool pictures with the mommas and the chickies so get the camera ready!
I left my hen alone for the most part and didn't candle. Broody took care of herself, and I did sneak a peak at the eggs when I caught her off the nest - mainly I was making sure no one else had sneaked an egg in there (it happened a few times). Our eggs were a few days old when we put them under her as well. While it is interesting to watch the development, I don't trust my candling judgment and would have hated to toss a viable egg. After the hatch, we had four eggs that didn't hatch. Three were sloshy sounding, one felt solid, like the chick had developed but not hatched. My understanding is that eggs won't rot/explode unless the shell is compromised to begin with enough to allow bacteria to get in there. Good luck!
